In my co-pending applications referred to above, the treatment of soil to improve its properties is described including buffering plant roots from harmful, toxic levels of chemicals and/or elements and degrading of harmful chemicals in soil.
This invention is particularly concerned with the detoxification of soil that has become contaminated by chemicals that have been applied directly to the soil, for example as a herbicide, or indirectly as by drainage of water or moisture from plants that have been treated with a chemical; also indirectly by the decay of plants that have been treated by chemicals and the mixing of the products of decay with the soil.
This invention is also concerned with the treatment of contaminated soil generally including the treatment of landfills and other soil which has become contaminated with toxic chemicals of various types which are organic in nature and it may have application to treatment of soil contaminated by metals.
The contamination of soil by chemicals applied to the soil directly or indirectly is a serious problem owing to the persistence of such chemicals in the soil which render it unfit for the raising of crops or of lesser use, and also the growth of other vegetation.
Heretofore soil contaminated by toxic chemicals has been detoxified, at least to some extent, by pH effects and hydrolysis, by photochemical effects and by chemical reactions. Residual pesticides have been degraded by unassisted microbiota, either added as such or naturally present in soil.
Such methods have been undependable and have not had consistent success.